carswell

Thanks for the pics, poutine. Yesterday at the market, yet again agog at the bounty, I was wishing sf&m would grace us with another batch of photos; they're so welcome in February. A typo maybe? Daine is a doe, which would make sense coming after cerf (stag).

According to a dipper at the JTM store, the Lachine Canal/Atwater Market branch of Havre aux glaces is a seasonal operation, probably closing in late October and opening again in April or May. Current hours are something along the lines of 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekends (neglected to ask if that includes Fridays); they reportedly stay open later in high summer. The selection of flavours is limited.

Thanks for the heads-up, skunkbunny. Have now been to Lao Beijing twice, both times in the evening, once by myself and once with some friends. The good news: as hellokitty70 mentions, the cold dishes are first rate. In fact, one, the lanières de concombre aux plusieurs saveurs, is worth a special trip. (My attempt at deconstruction pegged some of the flavours as black beans, cilantro, soy sauce, garlic, chile and dark vinegar; I think the cukes, unpeeled and unseeded, may have been Lebanese or kirby, and they were probably parsteamed or parboiled before being chilled and sauced.) Also good was a house salad, di la pi (or something similar), that involved wide (soy?) noodles, various julienned vegetables, bits of salt pork and a mild dressing. It comes to the table composed in a large bowl; the diners mix it themselves. The stir-fried dishes are less impressive. The silky bean curd in the ma po tofu cubes was excellent and the spicy sauce fine, neither greasy or oily, but the green peas were of the frozen variety. While the shrimp with vegetables was loaded with quarter-size crustacians, none were peeled (I ate them that way but the kids refused and complained bitterly about having to shell them). Chicken with chile paste was spicy but somehow bland. Fish with vinegar and sugar (as distinct from sweet and sour fish, which is also on the menu) was the best of the bunch: succulent breaded morsels with vegetables in a sauce neither too sharp or sweet. The menu features a number of exotic dishes like jellyfish salad, mutton with cumin and stir-fried pork intestine strips, beef tripe and pork liver. Will have to wait until I visit with more adventurous palates than my friends' before sampling them. Oddly, when we ordered one of the more off-the-beaten-path dishes, the Lao Beijing marmite (this must be the hotpot hellokitty70 refers to), the waitress strongly advised against it, saying it was for Chinese palates; that was enough to have the kids announcing they wanted nothing to do with it, so we followed her advice and ordered the chicken. Dishes we saw delivered to other tables included a wow-inducing Chinese fondue and a Flintstonian plate piled with huge bones. Servings are big; almost everyone leaves with a doggy bag. Prices are small; if you drink tea instead of beer, you'll be hard pressed to spend more than $20 including tax and tip. A lunchtime special (soup, small selection of mains, rice and tea, IIRC) is $6. The place is small (maximum capacity around 35, I'd guess) and in a semi-basement, though brightly lit and clean. A TV plays a DVD of Chinese acrobats and comedians, who at one point did an all-male Swan Lake (Beijing opera?). On my first visit, I was the only non-Chinese. They also do a brisk take-out trade. Service is smiling and friendly though the staff speak little English and less French.

Not sure I understand the question, jfl91. Are you asking who the city's best roasters are? Or maybe you're looking for someone who will roast green beans you've bought elsewhere?

In Mount Royal Cemetery. But his final resting place is probably not what the in-the-business types are talking about.

Depends on the purveyor, but Havre aux glaces sells a nice cup for under $3, as I recall. And their half litres are bargains at $5.99, only slightly more than "premium" mass market ice creams like Hagen Daaz. There are three gelaterias with good reps that I've yet to try (hard to when Havre aux glaces so consistently delivers the goods): Boulangerie Roma (word is that the pistachio and vanilla are particularly good); Restaurant Roberto (2221 Belanger East; don't know why Google won't display the address); and Pile ou glace, which closes during the cold months.

Thanks for the heads-up, poutine. I dropped by this evening at the tail end of a ride out to Lachine and back (it must have been about 8), and the place was deserted, meaning I wasn't desserted... Still, it's great news. Will try to remember to ask the next time I'm in the nabe or at JTM, unless somebody beats me to it.

You forgot the tongue in cheek. Cannot fathom how you manage to detect New York envy, though. Nice place to visit but... (And, yes, I have lived there.) What a crock of BS. There's great variation among Montreal bagels; New York and Montreal bagels are different beasts entirely. The ingredients differ: Montreal bagels contain malt (many new-fangled bagels don't or don't in more than homepathic quantities), are boiled in honey water (many new-fangled bagels aren't) and, I've been told, use a special yeast. Proportions differ (compare St-Viateur's and Fairmount's, the former doughier and spangled with seeds, the latter far sweeter and heavily encased in seeds). They are cut and formed differently. They are baked differently. Do you also claim a baguette is just a baguette? A roast chicken is just a roast chicken? Ice cream is just ice cream? Whatever are you talking about? I have never seen, here or in New York, pastrami or smoked meat served on a bagel. Now, the world being what it is, somebody probably serves it that way, but you're talking like it's a classic combo. Well, it ain't. In fact, it verges on the sacrilegious. (Google search on "smoked meat on a bagel" turns up four hits, none from delis. "Smoked meat on bagel" turns up one hit, on the eG Vancouver forum of all places; it's apparently offered at Siegels. Pastrami search results are nearly as insignificant.) The bread of choice for such sandwiches is rye. Accept no substitutes!

Nope. They don't even have a sign on the door. Talk about your cachet!

Hors d'oeuvres involving any of the following: - Salmon (poached and chilled, tartare, lightly smoked, gravlax) - Lightly smoked trout with horseradish cream - Sushi and sashimi, especially made from mild white fish/shellfish - Whitefish cavair, salmon caviar - Crab or shrimp salads (e.g. crab with garlic, chile, lime, fish sauce, cilantro and sugar on endive leaves; tiny shrimp with mayo dressing in an avocado half) - Weisswurst - Melon and prosciutto

The label is owned by Southcorp, "the largest Australian-owned wine producer and one of the top five wine companies in the world." Don't know about a Mark Burnett or INXS connection but either (or both!) of your hypotheses seems like a good bet.

Also, as the "Corned Beef and Cabbage – The Feeding of a Myth" article I linked to above points out, CB&C is more American than Irish, as is implied by the dish's other common name: New England boiled dinner.

This is why god invented Beano.

A quarterly publication available by subscription only: The Art of Eating homepage

Carswell, the corned beef that you describe here I've tried before years ago, at someone's home(several times actually). The corned beef that I tried at Snowdon Deli earlier this week was a very different animal(tasted very similiar to their smoked meat, but not their old-fashioned smoked meat). I'm not 100% certain, but I believe Snowdon Deli told me, that their corned beef is pickled & then smoked. ← There's a pizzaria in the nabe that serves chopped romaine with ranch dressing, croutons from a box and bacon bits, all topped with — depending on the "chef"'s whim — grated mozzarella or "parmesan" from a can. They call it caesar salad but that doesn't mean it's the genuine article. Cured meats (scroll to bottom for "deli style" corned beef recipe, which includes spices but is not smoked. Google "corned beef" recipe and you'll get tons of hits. Wade through the results, eliminating those that use corned beef (e.g. corned beef hash, corned beef pizza) and focusing on those for making corned beef, and a few things become clear. First, traditional (Irish/English) corned beef is made with salt, saltpetre, water and sometimes sugar, though modern recipes often include bay, garlic and mild spices. Second, for deli or Jewish style corned beef the spices and sugar are really ramped up and the brine sometimes includes vinegar. Notwithstanding Wikipedia's odd definition, few if any recipes involve smoking the brisket (actually, none of the 20 or so I looked at did).

After PMing wattacetti with the details, I realized this was something that might also interest others. edit: Coming installments will be posted on the Wine Lovers' Discussion Group.

Traditional corned beef is not smoked. Nor, as claimed upthread, is it spiced (though there may well be people who add spices to the brine). Normally, after brining it is rinsed well and long simmered in fresh water, the best way to rid it of some of its salt.

Thanks for the report, lperry. Am planning a three-part test kitchen for this weekend. Will post notes so we can compare. I experimented with this a few years ago. Here's my report.

Feel free to speak for Toronto but you're way off base describing Montrealers thusly. Chauvanism? Sure. Inferiority complex? No way. First off, Montreal bagels are demonstrably superior to NY's, not to mention Toronto's also-rans. (I say this is someone who grew up eating NY-style bagels and who still eats them whenever I'm in the vicinity.) Yeah, you can claim they're different animals and each is good in its own way, and you'd be right. But forced to choose only one for the proverbial desert island, a majority — probably a vast majority — of foodies would opt for Montreal's finest. But, hey, don't take my word for it. Next time you're at the St-Viateur bagel factory, spend a few minutes perusing the wall of newspaper and magazine clippings: food critics from the world over (well, OK, the Eastern Seaboard over) agree on the superiority of the product. Heck, some of them even wax poetic about the Old World connection, the wood-fired oven, the irregular shape, the crumb, the perfect dosing of honey and seed. And name me one NYC or Toronto bagel shop that has a novel named after it. I'd also bet that most Montrealers don't feel an inferiority complex in the smoked meat vs. pastrami shootout, if for no other reason than most of them don't give pastrami a second thought. In fact, I doubt the majority of native smoked meat eaters — francophones, you know — have knowingly eaten pastrami. And those who have tend to prefer the taste they grew up with, hence the dissing. (Personally, I think both pastrami and smoked meat are a waste of good brisket.) And, by the way, I've never heard any Montrealer claim that our deli scene, even in its heyday, begins to approach the New York standard. It's just that Montrealers know their local versions of those two deli staples, bagels and smoked meat/pastrami, are second to none, and they're proud of it. And, yeah, a little smug, too.

You mean even the Guinness on tap in the US is locally brewed? Kegs and cans in Canada are imported from Ireland; only the bottled Guinness is locally brewed and is it ever nasty. Though distribution is limited, St. Ambroise Oatmeal Stout from McAuslan Brewing is worth seeking out. "Kicks Guinness's ass all the way to St. James' Gate," to quote a beer judge of my acquaintance. And thanks for being the only person in this thread to spell Guinness right.

Oh, great. They get to feel good about being environmentally friendly. We get to absorb the cost of their defective wines. I'd be interested in seeing a breakdown of the amount of energy required to produce a screwcap or a glass-aluminum stopper (both of which can be made from recycled aluminum, btw, and both of which can in turn be recycled) versus that required to harvest, manufacture, treat and transport a cork*. Would be surprised if the difference was huge. And I bet both figures are virtually insignificant compared with the energy consumed in produciing, bottling, storing and transporting a bottle of wine. *edit: And don't forget to include the cost of the capsule.

Mainly flavour, though that varies greatly from variety to variety even within a given colour. Green figs, especially the ones we get here, tend to be milder and a bit nuttier. I use them in recipes where they end up incorporated in the sauce, since they don't darken it. For broiling/grilling and in tarts and other desserts, where colour isn't an issue, the more robust flavour of the brown/black figs is usually preferable.

In a word, yes. Hybridizers are doing to corn what they did to tomatoes: removing flavour in favour of shelf-life/transportability. The old adage was that the corn shouldn't be planted more than 30 feet from the stove it was to be cooked on and that the water should be boiling before you headed out to harvest the ears. Nowadays we see corn in January from places like Peru. Somewhere upthread, I think, I mused that what used to be a selling point ("C'est très sucré !") has now become a warning. Obviously, not everyone agrees, as evidenced by a recent discussion on the General Food Topics forum, and I'll concede that the vendor's wonderfully fresh and juicy corn would probably have been better simply boiled or grilled and eaten off the cob. But it made the soup, usually one of the high points of my summer, strange and cloying. One of my guests made the very same comment. Corn ice cream is actually pretty good. But not as a first course...

Cold corn soup. Best made with Silver Queen-type or white-kerneled non-supersweet varieties. Remove the kernels and put them in a pot with the cobs, cut in half, a small bay leaf per 6 cobs and some salt. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer until very tender (about 30 minutes). Remove cobs and bay leaf. Purée in a blender or food processor. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Chill (can be made 2 or 3 days ahead of time). Correct seasoning (salt and white pepper). Serve in small bowls with a drizzle of truffle oil or olive oil and a garnish of chopped chives, whole chervil leaves or basil chiffonade. For a real treat, place chunks of lobster meat in the bowl before ladling in the soup. Whole ears grilled over charcoal, spritzed with lime juice and sprinkled with a mixture of sea salt and cayenne. Poat dot (I cut back on the sugar; most modern-day corn is already sweeter than I like).

I'm game for potatoes, though I might also give green beans a whirl since they're still in season up here in the Great White North. Do you have access to new potatoes? I'd love to test them with dill. How about a test of either new potatoes or stratchy spuds (russets? Yukon Golds?) with more powerful flavourings? Garlic? Bay? Rosemary? Lemon? Any or all of the above? What's your standard spud for gnocchi? We could use those for the salt test.